A. W. Buchanan served as secretary of the Grange, ca. 1889--ca. 1893. R. A. Baird of the National Grange, also known as the Order of Patrons of Husbandry, which had formed in 1868, convened the first Grange in Texas at Salado in July 1873. The movement worked to obtain better home lives, business and educational opportunities, and more social interaction for agricultural workers and farm families.
Although the order was known for a lack of organization and a dwindling level of interest over the course of its approximately 75 year-run in Texas, many articles passed during the Constitutional Convention of 1875, especially those aiming for better education and agricultural opportunities, originated with the Grange. Both Texas A&M College and the Texas State College for Women (Texas Woman’s University) owe their existence in part to the work of the Grangers. The most noteworthy of the Grangers is arguably Archibald J. Rose of Salado.
Sources : Handbook of Texas Online, s.v. Grange, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/GG/aag1.html (accessed June 30, 2010).
Smith, Ralph A. Grange Movement in Texas, 1873-1900, Volume 42, Number 4, Southwestern Historical Quarterly Online, http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/publications/journals/shq/online/v042/n4/contrib_DIVL4503.html (accessed June 30, 2010).
From the guide to the Buchanan, A. W. Papers, 1874-1892, (Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin)
